The President of the Supreme Court, Jaime Arrubla, said Friday that the election of a Prosecutor General is vital for Colombia but that there are no plans to make changes to the list of candidates, reported Caracol Radio on Friday.
According to Arrubla, Supreme Court magistrates will convene next week in a special session, during which the prosecutor general must be elected from the existing list of candidates.
“For the Supreme Court it is clear that the current list of candidates is viable, composed of three eminent judges and we hope that from that will come the prosecutor general,” said the Supreme Court official.
Arrubla said that no changes would be made to the current choice of candidates.
“We have not considered changing the shortlist … the court unanimously considered them viable and it is doing its duty to vote for one and will continue doing so.”
Colombia’s Supreme Court on Thursday failed to elect a new national prosecutor general for the thirteenth time in a year, because they could not reach a consensus on which candidate should fill the position.
President Alvaro Uribe proposes that the power to elect Colombia’s prosecutor general be transfered from the Supreme Court to the head of state.
“I think that one of the reforms that the justice system lacks is that there is not a total separation between the prosecutor general who prosecutes, and the judges and magistrates who prosecute. I think that one of the reforms that Colombia needs is that the president of the republic names the prosecutor,” Uribe said.
The three candidates standing for the position are Margarita Cabello, Marco Antonio Velilla and Jorge Anibal Gallego. Cabello led in the latest vote.